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Hi, my name is Sue and I live with my partner in a village in Derbyshire. I love all kinds of mixed media crafting and am never happier than when I'm elbow deep in paint ! I hope you enjoy your visit !

Friday, 31 December 2010

Welcome to the 2nd annual blog hop awards event with The Stamp Man ! The hop starts at The Stamp Man challenge blog so if you've come via a different route you'll need to hop over there. If you started in the right place, you should have just come from Debbie's fabulous blog. To be in with a chance of winning a fabulous prize this is what you need to do :

Share your favourite/best project and link it with Inlinkz on The Stamp Man blog

Follow the hop and collect the letters from each blog. You will then need to work out what the letters spell.

Wednesday, 29 December 2010

Yes, I know I'm early, but I wanted to share the cards I made this afternoon for my family. I started making New Year cards 3 years ago when I bought a wonderful stamp set by Katzelkraft. My family love visiting France and so these stamps have a little extra meaning for them.

I've stamped the sentiment with black Stazon then used Tumbled Glass and Broken China DI around the edge. The background is made using a stencil and Tumbled Glass DI.

The flowers and leaves are Tim Holtz Sizzix dies, Tattered Flowers and Tattered Leaves. I've used a Versamark pen around the edges and then sprinkled Ranger Embossing Tinsel - Snowflake over them and heat embossed it.

I hope you're all having a lovely Christmas break and if you are back at work already I hope it's not too painful ! The fog has stayed with us again today and it looks like it will for the rest of the week, but at least it's not snowing and it's not as cold !

Sunday, 26 December 2010

I hope you're all having a wonderful Christmas and that Santa made it through the snow ! I just wanted to give you pre-warning of the special Stamp Man blog hop that will start on Friday 31 December. There will be some fantastic prizes up for grabs and it will run for 2 weeks.

So make sure you check out The Stamp Man blog on Friday and to help the hop be a success there's blinkie in my side bar that you can take for your blog and link back to The Stamp Man.

Wednesday, 22 December 2010

Well this must be the hardest card I've ever made ! The challenge this time round over on ABC Challenges is 'K' is for keep it simple. The sponsor for the challenge is Secret Crafter.

I've decided that simple and me don't mix ! This was my third attempt at keeping it simple and as time and my patience was running out, I kept it. I don't know what it is about large expanses of white card, but it just feels wrong to me ! Any way, I started by stamping the letters with Midnight Blue Stazon, I mounted them on to white card and cut it out with Labels 16 Nestabilities and used some more Stazon to sponge around the edge before removing the die.

I've mounted it onto a scrap piece of navy Bazill card and added some self adhesive pearls. The swirl is from a Hot off The Press stamp set, and I've stamped that with Stazon ink too.

I hope you get chance to join us for this challenge, and I hope you find it easier than I did !

Tuesday, 21 December 2010

The challenge over on Passion for ProMarkers started a couple of weeks ago and will last until 4 January, but to give you all a little more inspiration Team 2 have put together some more projects. Our theme for the Mega Christmas challenge is a nice easy one “anything goes”, just remember to use your promarkers or aqua markers to be eligible for our prizes. Don’t forget you can enter as many times as you like and combine with any other challenges.

I made this card for my best friend's little boy earlier this month. The image is one of Mo Manning's fab collection and he is shaded with ProMarkers. I cut him out using Labels 17 Nestabilities and blended some Faded Denim DI around the edge.

The stars started life as a flower punched with a Stampin' Up punch, and I've cut the edges off the petals to make it into a star then blended some more Faded Denim DI around the edge of them. The paper is Making Memories and the ribbon is from my stash. The tag is cut using a Quickutz die and the buttons are from my stash.

So now for the exciting bit – the prizes!

Letraset are generously offering a set of 40 promarkers in specific craft colours stored in two promarker wallets – fab eh!

Saturday, 18 December 2010

I've made this card for my eldest sister, and as it's her birthday today I'm safe posting it now ! I've really enjoyed making this card as I've used loads of ink and all of the backgrounds are made with stamps, no paper involved ! The most gorgeous image is one of Mo Mannings and when I spotted it I knew it was a must have. It's been shaded with ProMarkers then I've blended some Tea Dye and Vintage Photo DI around the edge. The background piece is made using a set of Serendipity stamps, Tea Dye and Vintage Photo DI. There is one small piece of paper which is a torn page from an old book. I've given it the DI treatment to age it. The wonderful swirl is made using a Tim Holtz die and I've rubbed Vintage Photo DI over that too ! The flower is cut from the page of an old book using the Tattered Flowers Tim Holtz die, and I've rubbed more DI over it. The centre flower is also a Tim Holtz embellisment from the idea-ology range. The metal corner embellisments are from my stash and I've used Espresso Alcohol ink to make them look tarnished.

The book stamp is also from the same Serendipity set of stamps and I've cut around it and mounted it onto brown card then onto foam pads.

I wanted to show the above photo as the base piece of card was made using Tea Dye, Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain DI then I used the most fabulous background stamp by Stampin' Up called Sanded. It gives the paper the most wonderful scratched look and I fell in love with it immediately !

The problem with getting carried away with making my cards is that they won't fit into an envelope ! So I've discovered that I need to make a box more often than not. I've used the same DI on the card then stamped the images from the Serendipity set and added the ribbon.

Friday, 17 December 2010

It's time for another challenge over on The Stamp Man, and this time we would like to see a tag, but the theme is entirely up to you !

I decided to stick with Christmas for this one, I have to say once I'm in the 'zone' I find it hard to stop myself making Christmas projects ! Any way for my tag I started by using Tumbled Glass DI and the Tim Holtz mini mask called Regal. I then stamped around the edge with a stamp from the Mini Holidays Tim Holtz set with Broken China DI.

The centre stamp is also from the Mini Holidays Tim Holtz set and I've stamped with Broken China DI, in hind sight I wish I'd have used a slightly darker ink so that the detail of the stamp stood out more as it is such a beautiful stamp.

Well it looks like the cold weather has come back to haunt us again, I just hope it holds off long enough until we break up for Christmas so it doesn't matter if it snows then !

Wednesday, 8 December 2010

It's time for the next challenge over at The ABC Challenge and this time it is 'J' is for jewels and gems. So get out your bling and join in the fun ! The sponsor for this challenge is Simon Says Stamp.

I was having another blue moment when I made this card, mainly because I wanted to use the lovely Basic Grey paper I have. The main image is a Stampin' Up stamp from the Lovely as a Tree set, stamped in Faded Denim DI. I've mounted it onto some white card that I've stamped the pine cone around the edge from the same set of stamps. The sentiment is from a Papermania stamp, I've masked off the rest of the words so I could just use this one bit.

I've paper pierced around the white card and the paper. For the eagle eyed you'll see that I've added some Stickles to the trees after I took the first photo, and also it's still wet !

Friday, 3 December 2010

It's time for a new challenge over at The Stamp Man and this time we would like to see cards using 3 Christmas colours.

This is another A5 card that I've made for an order. I have to say I'm not that keen on making cards this big, I don't know why, it just doesn't feel right ! Anyway, I started with a piece of white cardstock and then blended Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint DI over it. I used a piece of torn paper to mask off the card and make some hills across it. The trees are from the Tim Holtz Reindeer Flight stamp set. The reindeer is from the same set and has been embossed with gold EP. I've cut it out then mounted it onto red card and cut that out too. The sentiment is also embossed with gold EP, the stamp is from Tim Holtz's Mini Holidays stamp set. I've used an oval deckle edged Nestability to cut it out and lightly sponged some DI around the edge.

The border is Tim Holtz Sizzix Die called Scrollwork, I love this die ! I've just added some nail heads for a little more interest.

Well the snow is still lingering, I do love to see it though, I know the chaos it causes but it just feels really magical to me ! (I'd better stop now before I burst into song! ....lol.....)

Wednesday, 1 December 2010

This is a first for me as this is an ATC ! It's time for the ATC swap over on the The Stamp Man ATC swap blog. The challenge for this swap is 'Tis the Season.

So after I'd worked out how big I should be making this ATC! I started by blending Broken China and Chipped Sapphire DI over the card and then I stamped the snowflake from the Tim Holtz Mini Holidays stamp set. The calendar is also from the same set of stamps.

The frame is made from Labels 16 Nestabilities and I've blended Broken China and Chipped Sapphire DI over it. I've stamped one of the snowflakes again and cut it out and attached it with an eyelet.